God
takes great care to comfort his people in their many trials and sorrows in this
world. He commands his preachers to have for one of their goals the comfort of
his people. He says, “Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people.” Here are three things described in the Word of God that
should be of great comfort to every believer.

God
has made A BAG FOR OUR SINS. Job
said, “My transgression is sealed up in a
bag, and thou sewest up mine iniquity” (Job 14:17). In ancient times, when
men died at sea, their bodies were placed in a weighted bag which was sewn
together and sealed. Then they were cast into the depths of the sea. That is
what God has done with our sins. They are cast “into the depths of the sea.” When Christ died, by his one sacrifice
for our sins, which were imputed to him, he put away all our sins. They were
buried in the sea of God’s infinite forgiveness, put away, never to be brought
up again. God almighty will never charge us with sin, impute sin tous, remember our sins against us, or treat
us any the less graciously because of our sin. That is forgiveness! “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will
not impute sin.”

The
Lord has written A BOOK FOR OUR NAMES. Take
heart, child of God. Your name is written in the book of God! Before the worlds
were made, the Lord God inscribed the names of his elect in the Lamb’s book of
life. In that book, God has recorded, not only the names of the chosen heirs of
heaven, but also all things pertaining to them. “In the book all my members were written” (Psa. 139:16; Phil. 4:3;
Rev. 13:8; 17:8). The Lamb’s book of life is the book of God’s eternal purpose
of grace, predestination, and election. The fact that our names are written in
that book means that our salvation is a matter of absolute certainty and that
all things work together for our good by God’s arrangement to secure our
predestined end, which is perfect conformity to Christ (Rom. 8:28-30). When our
Lord says, “Rejoice because your names
are written in heaven,” he is telling us that we have nothing to fear. All
is well for those whose names are written in heaven.

Moreover,
the Lord God keeps A BOTTLE FOR OUR
TEARS. “Thou tellest all my
wonderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?...This
I know; for God is for me” (Psa. 56:8-9). It was customary at ancient
Egyptian funerals for mourners to have a small cloth or sponge to wipe away
their tears. Then, they were squeezed into a small vial, a tear bottle, and
placed in the tomb with the dead, symbolizing the care the mourners had for the
one who had died. Even so, the Lord our God, our heavenly Father, our almighty
Savior, and our holy Comforter tenderly cares for us. In all our afflictions he
is afflicted. We are the very apple of his eye.

Could
anything be more comforting in this world of sin, sorrow, and death? The Lord
our God has put our sins in a bag and buried them, our names in a book to
remember them, and our tears into a bottle to show his tender care for us.